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Based in Nairobi, Lucy Brewster is a workplace trainer and people-development consultant with copious experience of working for international firms. Lucy is also East Africa’s first, certified Lumina practitioner, having trained with Inemmo Leadership Development Solutions to use the coaching method.

Here, she explains why psychometrics have such a powerful role to play in enhancing leadership and teamwork in East Africa’s rapidly evolving business landscape…

Emotions have long been acknowledged as either the ladders we scale or the eggshells on which we walk in the workplace, and our success or failure with those tricky balancing acts exerts a huge, shaping influence on our personality and self-worth.

However, emotions are too often relegated to the side-lines in everyday workplace discussions. At best, they are dismissed in the face of plain-old competence matters related to technical tasks. At worst, they are greeted almost with embarrassment, as if feelings shouldn’t be allowed to intrude on professional relationships and blur our focus on organisational goals.

Thanks to the growth of technology, East Africa has become more connected to the wider world than ever. One organisation that has worked hard to encourage links between the region’s firms and those overseas is UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). Following the UK’s Brexit vote, and subsequent change of government, UKTI was absorbed into the new Department of International Trade (DIT), where it continues to support relationships between the British private sector and its foreign counterparts.

Under the new banner of International Trade & Investment, the team will have much to do in the coming years to strengthen the UK’s global business ties, as the country adjusts to life outside the European Union. As a Kenya-based DIT trade officer,Njeri Mugois part of that effort – and is eager to ensure that the Department’s contacts and expertise will empower East African companies to fulfil their ambitions.

Here, Njeri talks to Inemmo about the business climate in East Africa – and the valuable role that psychometrics can play in boosting leadership and talent in the region.

Lumina Learning has placed itself at the forefront of workplace coaching through its innovative learning and development tools, with growing numbers of organisations introducing their staff to Lumina Spark and its various sister methods.

Now, Lumina has delivered its coaching power right into the palm of your hand, with the recent release of the Splash App: a mobile-enabled version of Spark that aims to demystify psychometrics in the public eye and get more people to use them.

To find out about how the app works, we spoke to its co-creator at Lumina: Splash evangelist Nikita Mikhailov. His excitement for the project is running high…

In our previous Inemmo blog, we took a bird’s eye view of West Africa, where entrepreneurship is flourishing with dizzying speed and innovative firms and leaders are springing up at a rate that puts the UK’s ‘Silicon Roundabout’ to shame.

However, as the blog noted, West Africa must dig deep and harness the power of the most effective leadership-development experts and tools if it is to make the most of the opportunities it has given itself.

As an entrepreneur and business-development manager with more than 27 years’ experience in marketing and corporate affairs,Annie Babah-Alargi– head of Ghana-based consultancy Customer Matters – is on the frontline of efforts to ensure that the region will modernise its business practices to maintain its momentum.

In this guest blog, she tells us about where the region is falling short, and how it should improve to realise its incredible potential…